


Candescent

by Etiquette_mistress



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Shirbert, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 00:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21467191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etiquette_mistress/pseuds/Etiquette_mistress
Summary: Running hastily to reach the ferry, Gilbert Blythe used all his might to catch the next train back to Avonlea just to visit Anne Shirley-Cuthbert before his bidding farewell.Was proposing to Winifred the right choice? Was all his dreams all laid at him in a silver platter? If it is then why was there still a nick of inhibition?What was that inhibition?
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley
Kudos: 33





	Candescent

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys. So this is my first fanfiction. Lately, I've been addicted to Anne with an E and I'm still at the edge of my seat for waiting for S3, episode 9...
> 
> Anyway, this fanfiction was inspired by the bonfire scene in episode 8.
> 
> Leave a comments for insights! Love ya!

Firey embers of hair flowing through the chilly night air; every tendrils flicker ardent like wildfire . Porcelain skin dotted with reddened freckles. Green-blue eyes were big with wonder as soft lashes flutter with every blink. Lithe, sea foam dress hugging her graceful body as she twirls and glides through the imaginative melody she was humming, drowned by the laughter of the other children afar. 

Gilbert Blythe, out of words with astonishment, stares at the firey maiden dancing on the stone ledge near the bonfire without the consent of being aware how breathtaking she was that night.

Every twirl of her boot, every sway of her hips, every movement of her body was like flexible bamboos on the brisky wind. The hazel eyed boy's voice was caught down his throat. Eyes were glued to the subject of his desire. A loud thumping of heartbeat drummed his chest.

_Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was a sight to see..._

A quiet exhalation of breath brought him back to life, seeing a bewildered Anne Cuthbert winded out; wild green eyes bigger while lips slightly ajar, her auburn tendrils swept across her face. "G-Gilbert!"

He stepped closer, boots crunching sediments of rocks, not taking his eyes from the evident reverie in front of him. "May I speak to you, please?" he hadn't heard himself whisper this tender before.

Anne seemed drawn back from her state of shock. Fluttering her eyes, she stepped closer to him, but Gilbert was brisk to offer her a hand for support.

"Thank you" she breath out 

From up close, she was even more beautiful---he always knew she was beautiful ever since they've met. Hot, burning feeling ran down his chest, an intense sensation he never felt before.

"I'm glad you came" her soft whisper put him into a stop

Brows inclining with confusion, he smirked with a lopsided one "Of course I would come. Would never miss it for the world"

She smiled too; those beaming smile he'd come to adore. A reassurance Gilbert suddenly felt as if the sky burdening his shoulders was lifted. All the what ifs, the choices he had to think. Why did he have to think? All Winifred's father had to offer for him was what he wanted. So...why was he hesitant from the very beginning?

"I thought you'd run off to Charlottetown without saying goodbye" her voice was oddly quiet like a strained wounded animal. He'd realized her blue-green eyes were glassy.

"I wouldn't do that. Not to my highest morals will I leave Avonlea without a proper farewell" 

Her lips started to tremble "S-So you did finally decided to leave" it was a statement, not a question.

Wholesomely, Gilbert felt like a heathen of damnation at the very moment. He pulled her by the arm, away from the drunken howls of their friends. "No. No. No, Anne, I wouldn't do that to you"

Words started to spew out of his mouth like a vomit. All the raw emotions tearing out of his chest.

Seeing _his_ Anne cry was the last thing Gilbert wanted.

"But you just said it" Anne snatched her arm away, a little forceful this time. "Gilbert Blythe, don't take me as a gullible fool!"

"I'm not! " They were both startle by his sudden outburst. He cleared his throat "I'm not. You're far from being gullible, Anne Shirley-Cuthbert. You're the smartest, bravest, and brightest girl I know"

Green eyes smoldered from the reflection of the crackling fire. Her eyes were never this vivid, Gilbert pondered.

"O-Oh" a sigh of contentment escaped her lips. Biting the latter, she averted her gaze back to their laughing friends at the distance. She tucked her auburn strand behind her ears "Anyway, what did you wanted to talk to me?"

A lightning of reality strike Gilbert back. He stood up from the log they were seating, fully aware of intense eyes watching her. 

"So this evening, I went to Winifred's house in Charlottetown. For dinner with her and her parents." 

Anne nodded quietly.

"Her father and I talked in the parlor about what I might like to do in the future, so I told him my desire---being a doctor. Then he just laid it out on a silver platter. All of it."

Anne blinked rapidly without focus "  
"Im sorry? Laid...what now on a silver platter?"

He licked his lips "Sorbonne. Paris. The money to do all of it. My future, if I want it! Permission...to propose."

Anne looked up, utterly confused from all the words to be deciphered.

"I just... don't know what to do" he sighed 

Gilbert waited for a reply, but all he ever heard was the rushing of blood in his ears and the fire crackling. Green-gray eyes searched for sea-green ones, only to find it with droplets of tears prickling out.

"Anne..."

"You don't want to be a country doctor. Sorbonne is your dream, and it's practically set out for you. Winifred. Well, Winifred is lovely and her parents are nothing but supportive." She let out a shaky laugh, even quiter than the wind 

Auburn eyebrows knit together, Anne stared at him helplessly "I-I don't understand. What's holding you back?"

He hadn't realized he was staring at her all along. Hair tousled perfect, damned as if she just got out of for a swim in the lake. Pale face painted with red and freckles on her cheeks. She looked out of breath.

Slowly, he advance towards her, not taking his eyes off of her. Laying down to sit with her, suddenly, all the realization of his hesitations and inhibitions were finally put to pieces in his unruly puzzled problems.

The inhibition was right in front of him. All beaming and firey.

"Just...one thing" he whispered back, staring at her

Breath caught on her throat

Eyes staring longingly at each other from a forlorn-like tragedy romance.

It was a long pause before Anne could decrypt those words. Her cheeks reddened furiously "H-Huh..."

"I-I don't know what to say. What am I supposed to-? And everyone, everyone is...and now you just...and I'm pirate and we never even...and Paris is, and you are never going to find- that, that much I'm certain of. So how...can't...I...we." She was looked breathless.

A stab on the heart was all he felt. A numbing pain throbbing at his sternum. There was a pang of dissapointment he got from her answer. Those eyes told him a different story, but her answer...was a contradiction.

Gilbert Blythe thought Anne Shirley-Cuthbert felt the same...

**So was this all a mistake**?

Running through ferry, nearly knocked out of breath, just to get here was a mistake?

He laughed half-heartedly. 

"Why are you saying this to me right now, Gilbert?" she mumbled through trembling lips "After all the mishaps you put me throught since day one, how suddenly you...felt something for me?"

"From the very first day, you caught my attention, Anne. I was just tok blind to realize it just now"

She looked troubled. "That can't be possible. Winifred...she...she needs you"

Another sharp knife pierced through his chest, bleeding out in despair. Out of all his misfortunes, he still gambled his chance. "What about you? Do you need me?"

The question took her by surprised. Her big eyes started to flutter rapidly again. "W-What-? How could you...a-ask- You called me carrots"

"I thought it was cute"

Her red cheeks turned even redder "G-Gilbert Blythe, you are completely insufferable!"

And there it was again. The familiar crooked smirked plastered on his face that was full of michief. Anne smiled and laughed heartily.

Gilbert joined in, suddenly all the heavy weighing on his chest vanished.

"Yeah, I do" Anne abruptly blurted. He stopped laughing. "I need you, Gilbert'

He stared at Anne

His _Anne_

Right now, nothing mattered

Just the two of them. In the darkened forest, only fire flickering with their shadows expanded. They both stared again, unaware of their faces moving closer to each other. Breaths mingling with the cold night air. This time, Gilbert had no hesitation anymore. He captured those soft lips, feeling the warmth radiating from her

End


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